Rasam ~ Chaaru

Rasam or Chaaru is one of my favorite Indian Soups. Chaaru is usually served with rice and is a perfect comfort food in cold, winter weathers. I for one, don’t mind eating it anytime of the year! I am so fond of chaaru that when growing up, whenever I visited my aunt, she would prepare it just for me! I make 2 types of chaarus, one is tomato rasam or chaaru, with tomatoes and sometimes with V8 juice and the other is tamarind chaaru / miriyala chaaru. The chaaru I am sharing today is little different from want I normally make. I used rasam powder and also dal in this recipe. I usually don’t use rasam powder but do add all the ingredients that are used to make the rasam powder. Also, I add some onion and ginger garlic paste or crushed garlic. This recipe is adapted from Cooking at Home with Pedatha. I used all the ingredients required for the recipe but altered the procedure a little. The Rasam Powder is from this cook book which I shared here 3 weeks ago.

Cook toor dal in a pressure cook with ½ cup of water for 5 whistles and for 3 minutes on ow heat. Cooking time varies from cooker to cooker and cook it until the dal is cooked. Open the pressure cooker once the all the steam is gone.

If cooking on stove top, cook the dal with 1 cup of water and it will easily take 45 minutes to 1 hour.

I happen to eat Idli with Rasam at a restaurant and found it more satisfying than eating with sambhar, coz the otherwise bland Idly soaked up the flavor of rasam so nicely….yours is making me re-live those moments and I am seriously craving for one now !